The patron saint of Salemi is Saint Nicholas of Bari, celebrated on 6 December. According to tradition, when the population asked for a patron saint of their own, the first draw by lot pointed to the name of Saint Nicholas, but finding no direct link with the town it was decided to repeat the draw; the same name came up a second time too, so a third draw was made, which "miraculously" confirmed once again the Bishop of Myra, joyfully welcomed by the people. The old cathedral dedicated to him, damaged in the 1968 Belice earthquake, stands on a Roman temple dedicated to Venus; having become in the Middle Ages the mother church named for the Madonna degli Angeli, it was reassembled and rebuilt starting in 1615 by Mariano Smiriglio.
Salemi gathers around its Norman castle, built in 1077 over pre-existing Greek-Roman fortifications and later reworked by Frederick II of Swabia in the 13th century: it was from its cylindrical tower that, on 14 May 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi, having just landed at Marsala, raised the Italian tricolour, proclaiming Salemi "capital of Italy" for a day. On 19 March, meanwhile, the feast of the Cene di San Giuseppe is held, with wooden votive altars covered in bay and myrtle and adorned with citrus fruit and embroidered breads, the "cuddureddi", handmade by the town's women.
